Partners in Education

Overview of Seminars

Kennedy Center Seminars for Teaching Artist Development

The Kennedy Center offers five in-depth Seminars as a professional service for teaching artists interested in improving their practice and leveraging the Kennedy Center's educational approach. These Seminars are available to any Sponsor who wishes to build a cadre of knowledgeable and skillful teaching artists who can help students learn in and through the arts.

Each Seminar was developed through extensive research by master teaching artists and education experts, and then field tested with teaching artist audiences. The Kennedy Center includes current information from the fields of education and arts education and delivers clear and easy to use best practices to Seminar participants. Seminar content is drawn from the research of Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey, Benjamin Bloom, Howard Gardner, Daniel Pink, Sir Ken Robinson, and Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein, among others. The Kennedy Center calls on two decades of experience in producing professional learning opportunities for teaching artists.

The Seminars are designed to provide teaching artists with a competitive advantage and professional edge in their field. Teaching artists are given structure, guidance, and tools to implement clear goals in their residencies and lessons and to prove to administrators the value of their work.

The Seminars, designed for emerging and master teaching artists alike, can help arts organizations, schools, and education leaders develop a common philosophy, vocabulary, and teaching practice among their teaching artists. Instruction is supported by live demonstrations, PowerPoint presentations, and video examples. Seminar Sponsors can use the Seminars to help create and support local networks in which teaching artists can generate new ideas and provide higher-quality instruction.

List of Seminars

Seminars assist teaching artists in establishing a shared understanding of the definition of arts integration, planning effective artist residencies and lessons, planning and presenting workshops for teachers, and developing performance materials for students.

Designed for highly-experienced teaching artists who want to learn to plan and lead workshops that transfer a part of their knowledge and practice to teachers so that teachers can include the arts in their own teaching.

Designed for performing artists as well as arts and cultural organizations interested in developing or refining approaches to writing performance guides that prepare young people to be more knowledgeable and reflective audience members.

To Host A Seminar

Prospective Sponsors interested in hosting a Seminar should review the Seminar Overview document and “Note to Prospective Sponsors” above. Please note that the documents are different for each Seminar. For more information about Seminar Leaders, please visit our Seminar Leader Information Page.

To begin the booking process, please complete the Seminar Request Form: http://bit.ly/SeminarRequestForm. If you have further questions, you may reach the Kennedy Center at (202) 416-8843.

In order to avoid disappointment, please allow six to eight months lead time in making requests for a Teaching Artist Seminar. Seminar Leaders' calendars book several months in advance, and Kennedy Center staff need similar notice for contracting and preparation of Seminar materials.